'Huckleberry Finn' pulled from classes after parent complains

The Lansing State Journal ^ | November 3, 2006 | AP

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Hat tip, Rembrandt_fan, best synopsis on this thread, thanks, all.

BTW, the scene in which Huck is describing a circus through the eyes of a rustic fourteen year old, and the more he describes its elegance and grace, the more it appears tawdry and awful, is a masterpiece of ironic writing.

[acapesket]

We Massholes are especially sensitive to this subject as the Gaynazis are attempting to take over our State's educational system!

Visit www.davidparker.org .
it's gone over to a new website which will link you
to the new one, sorry.. so tech non savvy it's embarassing!

[I see my hands]

Zero degrees removed from destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

[bannie]

This book was very "anti-slavery."






Stupid woman.

[Wilhelm Tell]

The point of Mark Twain's revolutionary story was that Jim progressed from being "nigger Jim" to being equal to a white person and Huck progressed to where he could befriend black person even though society had conditioned Huck to believe that such a friendship was wrong. But that is something too difficult for the politically correct fundamentalists to understand.

[bwteim]

See BronzePencil's

CHILD POET: I WAS WRITE ON
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1596934/posts

or

beaversmom's

Seven-year-old poet defended, praised
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597956/posts

[gidget7]

"Hasn't anyone complained about books that advocate homosexuality?"


Here is a link to a lawsuit of more than one.

http://massresistance.com/docs/parker/index.html

[Bigg Red]

Anyone who had actually read the book would understand that Twain makes a case against racial bigotry.

[teawithmisswilliams]

"...Many people can't get beyond this to the progression of their relationship where Huck sees Jim as a friend and an equal and refers to him as "Jim"."

Not only that, the most important part of the novel is when Huck decides that, if it's a sin to harbor a runaway slave, he'll "go to Hell" rather than turn Jim in.

Ignorant, bigmouthed parents and craven school administrators-- it's a peecee bonanza! Let the kids "study" some raunchy piece of garbage instead of what many believe is THE great American novel.

[healy61]

You don't suppose the mother is a democrat, what with the opposition to civil rights and all through out the years.

For interest, in Marshall Michigan there is a plaque dedicated to the Adam Crosswhite Affair. A slave made it to Marshall in 1858 with his family, and then had three more children. Bounty hunters arrived in town and arrested them (but not the northern born children). The town had a riot and broke into the jail to rescue the family. The family went into hiding.

I think I need to read Huckleberry Finn again before some nazi raids my small library.

[Felis_irritable]

"this from a parent who probably thinks the word "niggardly" is a racial slur.."

IIRC, a homosexual DC councilman used the word "niggardly" to describe their budget, and after the libs figured out which side to be on (no easy task...) he was run out of office on a rail, so to speak.

[muawiyah]

Probably George Will or Krathammer suggested that Huck Finn just wouldn't read right if the "N-word" were substituted with the expression "African-Americans".

In fact, that would flip the meaning tremendously inasmuchas it would make the white-racists sound as if they were being polite to their slaves.

Whether there's one, none or a dozen AA kids in the classroom, this is a good piece of literature for them to learn about first hand. After all, Jim is the hero.

[gidget7]

I think that excerp was actually posted by someone else, and not the part of the post I was referring to. Sorry for the mistake.

[Prost1]

I guess they don't know ol' Huck and Jim were followin' "the drinkin' gourd".

So much history, so much culture - being lost because of blind bigotry.

[gidget7]

http://massresistance.com/docs/parker/index.html it's there

[Stoat]

think I need to read Huckleberry Finn again before some nazi raids my small library.

Thanks to the Miracle of the Internet, you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home to do so  :-)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Project Gutenberg

Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn

[healy61]

There is a song being sung today, "Give Me Jesus". I ran across it in an old text of negro spirituals. Turns out to be a few hundred years old.

[f150driver]

As mentioned, the ALA says it's one of the most often banned books. I can assure you that we librarians are some of the leading warriors in the right to intellectual freedom. While we may not be favored around here while we're championing books that "glorify" homosexuality or when the tome in question is "The People's History of the United States", but we defend the right to read Huck Finn, Catcher in the Rye, the Bible, and whatever else some special interest group objects to. We are equal opportunity defenders.

In this case the librarian couldn't take direct action because the complaint was about the curriculum, not the presence of the book in the library. The administration was foolish to cave. The librarian wouldn't have.

[unspun]

Sad for this school to be abandoning Big Jim and Huck.

Also very sad that this book began to mark the terrible mistake Samuel Clemens made in misappropriating God's truth, assigning it with evil and not good.

[SUSSA]

"We want to be sensitive to how the children feel," said Lynette Sutton, assistant superintendent for secondary instruction.

###

The bureaucrats at the government school don't care if the children are educated, well read, or trained to think. They just care how they feel.

Socialized education is no better than socialized medicine, socialized housing or any other income redistribution scheme, and no more necessary. Socialized education has no place in a free society.